Chapter 9
9
CAHUANI
C ahuani awoke with a start as a pounding erupted through the room, his heart hammering in alarm. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes until his vision cleared, then pushed himself out of bed. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the sheet on the other side of the bed collapse. Moments before, the outline of Tlalli’s form had been visible beneath that sheet. The pounding must have awoken her as well.
He bit his lip but then hurried toward the door when the banging grew louder.
“Come on, Cahuani!” It was Anthony’s voice penetrating the wood. “Get?—”
Cahuani threw the door open before Anthony could slam his fist down once more, then swelled to his full size in the doorway. Anthony immediately recoiled, taking two steps back and gathering his composure—or at least the closest thing to composure that he possessed. Then he rushed toward his father only to be roughly yanked back. It was only then that Cahuani realized Anthony wasn’t alone. The angel, Elias, was at his side.
“What do y’all want?” Cahuani asked. “It’s six in the fuckin’ morning.”
“We were wondering if you’d seen our companion.” Elias spoke as though this were a friendly visit and not a raid. “Little taller than you, gold braids, a snarl on her face probably. She?—”
“No, I ain’t seen Tlalli. Why the fuck would I be tryna see Tlalli when I specifically told this boy to keep her away from me yesterday?”
Elias merely stared at him as if trying to determine if Cahuani wanted a legitimate answer to the question or not. Cahuani gave him ample time to figure it out before fixing his eyes on his son.
Cahuani pointed his finger directly at Anthony. “You keep forgetting who you’re talking to, and I’ll start doing the same. You won’t like it, son. I promise you that.”
“We don’t want any trouble,” Elias assured him, although he was looking at Anthony again. Cahuani realized he must be the babysitter. He almost felt sorry for Elias. “We all know a disturbance will reflect poorly on both our employers, and that is the last thing we need right now.”
“I’m sure. Maybe next time, you should check these things on your own, Elias.”
“I’m gonna do my best, I assure you.”
Anthony took another step toward his father anyway, and Cahuani clenched his fists at his sides. Though he knew what lay beneath the mask Anthony donned, that mask was begging to be hit square in the jaw.
“You better stay away from her,” Anthony spat.
“Thank you for the reminder, Anthony. I really needed it at the crack of dawn.” Cahuani tried not to roll his eyes. “Go get yourself cleaned up. You look a mess.”
They stared each other down for what felt like a decade, Cahuani fighting off regret while hatred crusted Anthony’s gaze. At last, the younger retreated, turning and stomping back down the hall like a child. Cahuani could hear multiple doors shut quickly. Embarrassing.
Once Anthony had disappeared into the elevator, Cahuani turned back to look at Elias, who had not moved. Instead, the angel was eying him with an expression Cahuani could not decipher.
Though he had heard of the angel—Greed spoke of him on several occasions with a reverence that had always intrigued Cahuani, albeit not enough to ask for elaboration—this was the first time they had actually interacted with one another. Yet the air between them felt charged. Like Elias knew something Cahuani didn’t know. Or at least like he knew more about Cahuani than Cahuani knew about him.
Elias was several inches taller than him and had broad shoulders, a barreled chest, and a round belly outlined by the fabric of his white T-shirt. He wore a pair of equally round glasses, and Cahuani wondered if he actually needed them. He was handsome, with his tight black curls and honey-brown eyes. When Elias ran his hands over his own thick forearms, Cahuani’s attention was drawn to the veins there, defined against his dark-brown skin, which glowed even in the dim hallway lights. Or maybe those lights were just dim in comparison to Elias.
“Sorry about this,” Elias said. “I tried to stop him, but... Well, I’m sure you know your son.”
In spite of himself, Cahuani chuckled. “I do. Sorry you’ve been reduced to playing his guardian angel.”
Cahuani felt the urge to inform Elias that he’d heard great things about him, but he didn’t know if that was an appropriate thing to say under the circumstances. After all, this was not a friendly visit. They were not friends.
Elias shrugged. “Eh, it has its pros and cons, I guess.”
He didn’t elaborate further, and Cahuani couldn’t bring himself to ask him to, so the two simply stared at one another as the silence pressed in. If Cahuani didn’t know any better, he would have said that the look on Elias’s face was one of intrigue. Though even that didn’t seem to sum up the expression, and something about it made his stomach flip. Like he was being excavated right here in the hall. Yet rather than wanting to retreat and shut the door, Cahuani yearned to offer Elias better tools for the digging. And that would be fucking foolish.
“Is that all?” Cahuani forced out, suppressing the urge to squirm.
Elias seemed to snap out of his own trance. “Oh, shit, yeah. Yeah, my bad. Uh, have a good morning, Cahuani.”
Suddenly, Cahuani’s skin felt too tight, too hot, too constricting. Enemies were not meant to speak your name like that—like they enjoyed the taste of it on their tongue. Then again, Cahuani couldn’t say for sure that Elias did. He had always been good at mistaking tone and other social cues, especially with strangers. This must simply be a reminder that the weakness persisted.
“You too, Elias.”
With that, Cahuani stepped back into the room and shut the door, ignoring the overwhelming feeling that the conversation was unfinished.
“You’ll need to go back eventually,” he said softly as he approached the bed. “We need to keep up the ruse. What will you tell him when you return?”
A cocoon of shimmery golden light formed atop the sheets, then grew until it dissolved into Tlalli’s divine human body. Fuck, he wanted to be between those legs again right now, his tongue so deep in her pussy that he could feel her heartbeat.
“That I was in Stasis sleeping off my anger,” she returned with a shrug. “Which was where I had planned to stay to begin with because he refused to get me my own room.”
Ignoring the second part for the moment lest he lose hold of his anger, he focused on the first. He had forgotten that the angels could do that, just step out of existence and away from all realms. What a privilege that must be. Yet another that the angels monopolized while villainizing everything and everyone else forced to live in the world they created.
“Can’t he sense you here?” Cahuani countered after a moment. He needed to be sure. He couldn’t risk the job.
“He can only do that if I allow it. I don’t allow it unless it is absolutely necessary.”
“What qualifies as ‘absolutely necessary’?”
“Not right now. I will tell you that.”
He could not think of what to say to that, nor did he wish to argue. He had already committed to trusting her. There was no point feeding into his own anxiety now.
When he said nothing, she turned her head to look at him, pouting playfully. “You tryna get rid of me already?”
“And when did I say all that?” he shot back.
“Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I’m tryna figure out which hole I wanna use first.”
Her lips parted and her tongue poked out, then she rolled over to stretch out on his side of the bed.
His eyes scraped over her from feet to head, taking in every inch of her and committing it to memory as he dropped his boxers to the floor again.
“Do you need some help deciding?” she purred.
“If you would be so kind.”
“Well...” She trailed her hand down between her thighs and pressed against her clit, releasing a whimper before sliding her fingers upward again. “I’m still kinda sore down there, Papa Bear.”
He suppressed a shudder and moved closer to thread his fingers gingerly through her braids and guide her head to hang over the edge of the bed.
“And you haven’t had breakfast yet,” he pointed out gruffly.
She glanced up at him. “Neither have you.”
“Then I guess we should handle that first and foremost.”
If she had planned to offer a response of any kind, he wouldn’t know. The moment her lips parted again, he pushed his cock between them, and she took it in with a delighted moan. He watched in elation as her throat expanded around it, and he ran his palm over the bulging skin before squeezing it. Whatever sound she tried to make vibrated through him in the most delicious way, and he had to fight to not push deeper.
Though he didn’t need to in the end. Tlalli’s hands wrapped around his thighs and pulled him closer until her lips were against his groin.
He pumped slow to start, pulling out every now and again when she tapped the side of his thigh for breath. He let her get comfortable in that rhythm, her tongue and teeth adding various sensations that had him goading her on.
“Fuck, that’s a good girl.” He pushed out a breath, leaning farther forward.
Memories of the night before flooded his head, his mind drawn to the reminder of the footage that now lived in his phone. He had looked into the camera’s eye several times the night before, reveling in its hungry gaze as he fucked her and yearning to see it all play out on screen. She would be immortalized there, a perfect picture of desire on his massive television at home. He could not wait.
... Okay, that wasn’t true. He could wait, as long as waiting equated to having the real thing. And if he had to choose, he would hold off watching forever in exchange for fucking her like this every day.
Still, just the sight of her could make him cum if he let it. But no, not yet. He had to return the favor.
With his hands, he spread her thighs. With his fingers, he spread her folds. Then he began to draw soft circles around her clit until she was moaning around his cock again, pushing him away and pulling him deeper in quick succession. The pattern only intensified when he replaced his fingers with his mouth.
Like an artist with a brush, he was particular about each and every stroke of his tongue, so he flattened it against her clit before resuming his circular motion. Tlalli’s nails bit into his thighs and then she pulled off his dick completely, but before he could check on her, she was sucking his balls into her mouth, sending his hips jolting forward and his shaft sliding through the valley of her breasts.
“Fuck,” he groaned, then gave her pussy a firm slap.
She whimpered beneath him but didn’t change course, her hands moving up along his ass to squeeze and knead the flesh.
He slipped a hand between the two of them and grabbed hold of his dick, then searched out her mouth until she once more granted him entry. He did not leave her to her own devices this time, however. Instead, he began thrusting into her throat at once. A moment later, he buried his face in her folds.
Her body arched and bucked, coating his lips and cheeks in arousal in mere moments as she careened toward an inevitable climax. He was sloppy with it, ravenously slurping and sucking and biting wherever and whenever he could as he devoured the sweet fruit of Eden. Even when he pulled out of her airway every now and again, he didn’t let up. Cahuani took great pride in everything he did, in every task he undertook, and in every job he committed to. Tlalli was no different.
He was going to ruin her for anyone else.
He had only just sunk two fingers into her pussy, his lips wrapped firmly around her clit, when she screamed around his cock and graced his tongue with the excessive fruits of his labor. Eagerly, he licked her clean. Then he pushed himself up and out of her mouth.
He had to keep her on her toes; he refused to let her get too comfortable. Her pussy was still spasming when he climbed atop her and slid his dick into it. He wouldn’t last long, but that hardly mattered. Her body shook beneath him, her nails scratching wildly at his shoulders as he thrust.
It had been a long time since he’d had this much energy to offer, especially for sex, but she made it easy. In fact, she made it impossible to be anything but insatiable.
She didn’t need to know all that though, at least not right now. With a hand around her throat and his teeth scraping her jaw, he rutted into her until his own orgasm crashed down around him like an avalanche, rattling him to his core. The ecstasy was almost unbearable in its force, but he rode it out all the same.
“Cahuani...” she breathed, her eyes dazed and far away.
He answered by claiming her lips, first with his own and then with his teeth, biting her lower one hard enough to break skin. She only kissed him harder.
“Oh, you really want forgiveness,” he managed against her mouth.
“Fuck,” was all she muttered in return.
“What’s wrong, princess? Too hard?”
She shook her head slightly.
He chuckled. “Too soft?”
“No . . . Just right.”